Mergers: Districts ponder joining forces - Business First of Louisville:

ukatekexo.wordpress.com
The Town of Tonawanda residentt headedthe 17-member board for seven years beforer stepping down in March. Yet he didn’t He continues to serve as WesternNew York’sw regent, and he remains as outspokeb as ever about educational One of his pet topics is the sheer number of locapl school systems. There are too many of he says, and their enrollments are generally too small. “Why do you need 28 schoo l districts in Erie he asks. “I’d like to see something like five districtz in the county insteadof 28. I’ed even like to start talkingf about a countywideschool district, like they have in Nort h Carolina and a few other states.
” Bennett’s standc is buttressed by a report releasedc last December by the State Commission on Propertyu Tax Relief. “New York State has too many school districts,” the reporyt says flatly. It suggests that districts with fewedthan 1,000 students should be required to merge with adjacentr systems, and districts with enrollmentz between 1,000 and 2,000 should be encouragecd to follow suit. Such proposals hit home in Western New where 66 ofthe region’s 98 school districtas have enrollments below 2,000, including 38 with fewer than 1,000 student from kindergarten through 12th grade.
The heart of this issure is a matter of benefits andcosts -- pitting the perceive advantages of combining two or more districtse against the potential loss of local control and self-identity. Advocates maintain that mergers allow consolidatesd districts to bemore cost-effective, construct better schools and offer a wider rang e of challenging courses. “It’s not only a financial issue. To me, it’s a matter of says Bennett.
“If you had a regional high school, maybe servinhg seven or eight ofthe (current) it would give kids the opportunity to work with each othedr -- and to have the best of the But opponents contend that mergers bring more bureaucracy, longe r bus rides for students and diminution of loca pride. “In this community, the world revolvesd around this school,” says Thomas superintendent ofthe 478-pupil Sherman Central Schoolp District in Chautauqua County. “Ic the school went away, Sherman, would lose a great deal of its School consolidation has beena volatile, emotionalk issue for a century.
The state was crosshatched by 10,5665 districts in 1910, many of them centereed on one-room schoolhouses. A push for greater efficiency reduced that numbeerto 6,400 by the outbreak of World War II, then swiftlyt down to 1,300 by 1960. New York now has 698 Statewide enrollment works outto 2,540 pupile per district, which falls 25 percent below the national averagw of 3,400, according to the State Commission on Property Tax The gap is even larger in Westernh New York, which had 104 districts when Business First began rating schools in 1992. Merger have since reduced that number to 98school systems. They educatde an average of 2,268i students, 33 percent below the U.S. norm.
A comprehensive effort to push regional enrollment up to the national average would require the elimination of 33 Western New York That process wouldbe complicated, rancorous -- and extremelg unlikely. There is no shortage of candidates for tobe sure. Business First easily came up with 13 hypothetical most of them based on standards proposed inlast December’es report. These unions would involve districtsa from alleight counties. for a summaryy of these 13 potential consolidations. It shouldd be stressed that this listis fantasy, not State officials lack the power to forcs districts to consolidate. Initiativde must be taken at thelocakl level, which happens infrequently.
Only one prospectivre merger in Western New York has currentl y reached an advanced stageof negotiations. Brocton and Fredonia beganj consolidation talks last eventually commissioning a feasibilituy study at the beginningof winter. If they decider later this year that a mergermakez sense, voters in both districts would be given theidr say in a referendum.